Manny to the Giants for Four-Year Deal?

Now while I strongly believe the “source” in this story is closely associated with one Scott Boras, it’s still worth passing along to the Dodger faithful. Make your own assumptions, but it’s interesting timing given the Andruw Jones news this evening. From CBS 5 in San Francisco:

Giants Offer Slugger Manny Ramirez 4-Year Deal

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ?The San Francisco Giants are pursuing free-agent slugger Manny Ramirez and have offered him a four-year deal, a well-connected source told CBS 5.

Financial terms of the contract offer were not immediately known. The deal was said by the source to contain incentives for the third year of the contract and a club option for the fourth.

In addition, the Denver Post newspaper quoted a Major League Baseball insider as saying the Giants were “quietly making an aggressive play” for Ramirez.

The chances of the Giants signing Ramirez, a 36-year-old left fielder, were unclear. A team spokesperson told CBS 5, “it’s not happening.”

The Los Angeles Dodgers recently withdrew a two-year, $45 million offer they presented to keep Ramirez, who helped lift them into postseason play with an NL West title this past season.

Dodger officials said the team took their deal off the bargaining table after not hearing back from Ramirez’s camp.

Calls by CBS 5 to Ramirez’s agent, who is known for trying to pit teams against each other in a bidding war, were not returned and his publicist had no knowledge of any negotiations with the Giants.

Andruw Jones No Longer a Dodger!

Yes, it’s the New Year’s gift we’ve all been hoping for, but it does not come cheap. According to Ken Gurnick at MLB.com, the Dodgers have agreed to pick up ALL of Jones’ remaining salary, but will defer it to future years. Jon Heyman at Sports Illustrated is reporting this will save the Dodgers $12 million this year, which obviously could be used for the long-awaited Manny Ramirez signing. According to Heyman, Jones will be released or traded before Spring Training. In exchange, Jones is free to sign as a free agent elsewhere, and the Dodgers will pick up the tab.

Regardless of what happens to Jones, I still think this is the move that had to be made. For whatever reason, Andruw was never comfortable in LA, and nothing that Torre, Mattingly or even Man-Ram did could break the guy out of what (at best) could be described as one of the most incredible slumps of all time.

Good luck, Andruw. We hardly knew thee.

Manny Offer Is In; Penny Gone

So Ned reportedly made a play for Manny, but it surely is a two-year deal for $55 million.  A nice move, but does anyone seriously think Manny is going to take that?  Not with Boras as his agent!  Good thing the Dodgers cleared some salary by buying out Penny’s contract for $2 million (not a pretty penny! sorry, couldn’t help myself…) as they’ll need that for either Ramirez or Sabathia.

On a related note, Blue Notes had an interesting post relating to comments from Steve Henson at Yahoo! Sports on the Padres’ asking price for Jake Peavy:

The Dodgers would be long shots because the Padres are loathe to help their intra-divisional neighbors to the north. It would take Clayton Kershaw or Jonathan Broxton, plus DeWitt and Ethier, just to pique the Padres’ interest.

JUST TO PIQUE THEIR INTEREST!!! Whatever…could you seriously imagine playing the Pad’s and seeing Kershaw on the mound with DeWitt and Eithier behind him?  Unbelievable.

Big Unit Scratched; Kershaw to Start Sunday

Love the battle of the rookies tomorrow night!!!

From ESPN:

Dodgers RHP Greg Maddux, a winner of 354 career games, was originally scheduled to face LHP Randy Johnson, a 294-game winner, in Sunday’s game. Instead, it will be 20-year-old LHP Clayton Kershaw (3-5) going against 24-year-old RHP Max Scherzer (0-2). Dodgers manager Joe Torre thinks Kershaw matches up well against the Diamondbacks, while Johnson was scratched because of a sore left shoulder. …

Welcome to Hollywood, Manny Ramirez!

Wow. Seriously, is there a better way word to describe this deal? Maybe unfathomable. Unbelievable. Extraordinary. Am I dreaming? Did the Dodgers really get Manny Friggin’ Ramirez for Andy LaRoche and a 21 year-old Class A minor league pitcher that’s already been through Tommy John surgery? Did I mention that the Red Sox are also reportedly picking up Manny’s salary? That’s like the bow on top of this gift from Theo Epstein. I was working at the X Games today, and my phone was ringing off the hook as fellow Dodger fans called to celebrate the news. Congrats to SI’s John Donovan for breaking the news.

Read my comments on an earlier Manny Ramirez post from Alex earlier today, and I was critical of adding Manny to the Dodgers for fear of the cost of what we’d have to give up as well as what might happen behind the clubhouse walls. I never imagined that we would get possibly the greatest hitter of his generation for practically nothing. Two months of Manny while in a tight pennant race is just too good to pass up, even if he’s just average. Plus, you have to remember that Manny’s teammates have loved the guy a great majority of the time. It’s the media and the front office that usually have the problem with him (and for extremely valid reasons, I might add). But the Dodgers know it’s just for two months, and Manny’s in a contract year, so he’ll be on his best behavior. Congratualtions Ned. I never thought you had this in you!

A few thoughts on “The Trade” from Dodger executives, the media and our fellow bloggers:

- From Tim Kurkjian (ESPN): “Three potential Hall of Famers were traded within 24 hours (Ramirez, Griffey Jr. and Ivan Rodriguez. The last time this happened was 1966 when Robin Roberts, Orlando Hernandez and Fergie Jenkins were moved…and that was over the course of several months.”

- From a giddy Frank McCourt: “He (Ramirez) is an elite athlete. As close as you can come to being an artist of the game….Certainly a baseball classic.”

- Understatement of the year from Joe Torre: “Manny in the middle of the lineup will certainly get people’s attention.”

- From Dodger Thoughts (the blog of all Dodger blogs): “If Ramirez replaces Pierre/Jones in the lineup, this deal makes the Dodgers a more serious contender to finish over .500 in 2008. (I kid! I think they can do even better.) It weakens the Dodgers beyond 2008, but honestly, there’s time enough to solve that.”

- From the good folks over at the Sons of Steve Garvey: “The right personnel on the field does not include Andruw Jones or Juan Pierre–BOTH OF WHOM ARE STARTING TONIGHT in what I hope is to allow the obligatory “farewell waves to the crowd” for at least one of those players. Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp simply cannot ride the pine if we hope to make a run.”

This last quote from “Steve Sax” really says it all. This move has got to mean that Jones has earned a permanent spot on the bench. The man is a strikeout machine and it’s becoming abundantly clear that Andruw has lost his mojo. Permanently.

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